I had never been a fan of Tun Dr. Mahathir, the longest serving Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years. Growing up, I saw how he ruled the country with iron fist and heard stories about his corruption. But there’s no denial that under his rule, the country was growing steadily. Even after his retirement, I still didn’t like him much because I always believed that you can’t take the stripes out of a zebra.
That is until recently.
At the tender age of 93, Tun Dr. Mahathir came out from retirement to join politics again, campaigning against UMNO, the party that gave him so much, the party that made him the Prime Minister for 22 years, the party that he started (I am not going to go into the history, but if you are interested, you can read it more here. I, along with many people, am bewildered about the turn of event; the hardcore founding father of UMNO (Baru) is trying to topple his own political party he founded (of course, Tun Dr. Mahathir has been sacked from UMNO).
Then I understood why he did what he needed to do, and from being not a fan of Tun Dr. Mahathir, I have turned to become a big fan of his.
Tun Dr. Mahathir, 93, has everything. He is wealthy, and he is well respected by almost all Malaysians. Wherever he goes, people will chant “Long live Tun”. Then his children are well established and they have a good life. If you were 93, you might retire to enjoy life, living a simple and peaceful life with no disturbance from the outside, traveling the world, playing with your grandchild or great grandchild. So why would Tun Dr. Mahathir want to give up all that to contest against those in the corridor of powers, those who are controlling everything in the country? And have you thought of the of the consequences if Tun Dr. Mahathir fail?
By announcing his political agenda in campaigning against UMNO, mainly Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the current Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir is putting everything he has at risk. In Chinese gambling movie, it’s call “Show Hand” (go watch God of Gamble if you must), or in Texas Hold’Em, that means “All-In”. If Tun Dr. Mahathir does not succeed in toppling UMNO from the grab of power, I can imagine he’s going to be investigate for crimes and corruptions that might have or might not have happened years ago, or for the Fake News Act about his private jet has been sabotage. He might be stripped of his Tun title and as political revenge, his children might not be spared from the onslaught from those in power. So Tun Dr. Mahathir is putting not only himself, but his family and everything he has, into this one last political battleground (come on, he’s 93, so how many General Elections do you think he will and can contest?).
Why would he want to do that? Why would Tun Dr. Mahathir want do something stupid like putting his whole family and everything he has into this one General Election? If he has lost his mind, I believe his family members would restrain him and oppose him publicly. But no, his family members and friends are throwing their support for him to fight. So the next question is this; what is Tun Dr. Mahathir fighting for?
You and me. That’s the answer. He has seen how the country has dwindled over the years under the care of Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Tun Dr. Mahathir has seen how rampant was the corruption (I’m only citing Department of Justice, Wall Street Journal and the Swiss newspaper so Fake News Act, please go after DOJ and the pack of wolves who published those news) until the national debt skyrocketed to close to RM 900 billion. Yup, that’s RM 900,000,000,000.00. If you divide that debt into the amount of population fo about 30 million, that means everyone, including you and me and the new born baby, has a personal debt of about RM 30,000.00, per person.
Most people can’t phantom how much is RM 900 billion because if you have never handled such big amount of money, it’s totally out of our imagine. Just like how my 3 years old daughter is happy with 3 apples because 3 apples in her hands is something HUGE. But I am sure you can imagine the personal debt of RM 30,000, per person.
And the bad news is, under the current regime, more borrowing is in the horizon to settle certain debts so I won’t be surprise if Malaysia will break the trillion dollar debt mark.
So Tun Dr. Mahathir is not the hero right now. He’s the saviour for the common people like you and me because he’s the last hope to overthrow the current regime who had had a firm control of the country for the last 60 years. The opposition political party has tried for many years, and the closest they had done previously was during 1969, which of course resulted in the May 13th riot incident.
So, the 14th General Election is just 2 days away. On May 9th, 2018, the people of Malaysia is going to cast their votes. For me, this time, I believe in Tun Dr. Mahathir and I believe him when he said that he’s sincerely sorry for the mistakes he has done during his rule, and he is coming back trying to right his wrongs to make Malaysia great again. If he’s not sincere in repent, he won’t risk everything he has, putting his family in jeopardy by contesting in the 14th General Election against UMNO.
And my message to my dear fellow Malaysia; you shouldn’t be afraid to cast your vote according to what you like. As a citizen, you should understand your constitutional rights. You are not toppling any government when you are voting in an election. You are only exercising your constitutional rights in selecting which political party to form the government, and under the constitution, you are free to select whoever you want or whatever political party you want to represent you. Your loyalty is towards your country, not to certain political party. If you feel that your country needs a change for the better, then there is nothing wrong to choose who you want to govern the country.
This time, I believe in Tun Dr. Mahathir.
